DUPUIS NETS FIRST: This past weekend produced a couple of firsts for Crunch rookies Philippe Dupuis and Olivier Labelle. On Saturday night vs. Hershey, Dupuis scored his first professional goal. He joined the Crunch following an outstanding junior career in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, recording 324 points (113g, 211a) in 313 games with Hull, Gatineau, Rouyn and Moncton. A native of Laval, Quebec was originally drafted by Columbus in the fourth round, 104th overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. Dupuis’ goal produced right wing Olivier Labelle’s first point as a professional, an assist.

Columbus recap: The Blue Jackets went 1-1 last week, defeating Phoenix 5-1 on Monday, October 9 and losing 5-0 against Minnesota on Saturday, Oct. 14.

Many of the Crunch’s former players are contributing to Columbus’ 2-1-1 record. On Monday night, defenseman Duvie Westcott recorded one goal and two assists while, defenseman Anders Eriksson and center Mark Hartigan each added an assist. Goaltender Pascal Leclaire made 23 saves in the win. On Saturday night Leclaire finished the night with 14 saves after being relieved by Fredrik Norrena midway through the second period.

Through four games this season, Westcott (2g, 3a) and Hartigan (1g, 2a) are among the Blue Jackets top five scorers. Leclaire has appeared in all four games posting a 2-1-1 record, 3.36 goals against average and .889 save percentage.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS:OMAHA (CALGARY FLAMES): The Crunch make their first-ever trip to Omaha on Friday, Oct. 20 for the first of two regular season meetings.

IOWA (DALLAS STARS): On Saturday, Oct. 21 the Crunch travel to Iowa for the first of two regular season meetings. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

CRUNCHABLES: Syracuse’s start this season (0-4-0, 0 pts) is the slowest start in team history. In the 1998-99 season the team was winless in their first four games (0-3-1), while in 2000-01, Gary Agnew’s first year as head coach, the team went winless in their first five games (0-3-1-1)… Twelve of the 22 players who have dressed for Columbus this season have at one point in their career played for the Crunch (Duvie Westcott, Mark Hartigan, Nikolai Zherdev, Anders Eriksson, Jaroslav Balastik, Dan Fritsche, Geoff Platt, Joe Shelley, Alexander Svitov, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Aaron Johnson and Pascal Leclaire)… Syracuse scored their first power play of the season on Saturday, Oct. 14 vs. the Hershey Bears… Right wing Brandon Sugden is 61 penalty minutes short of tying Jeremy Reich (820) for first on the Crunch’s all-time penalty minutes list… Right wing Joe Motzko is one assist shy of 100 in a Crunch uniform… Defenseman Jamie Pushor is eight games short of appearing in his 900th professional game.